Hollywood Bound

-
We leave for Los Angeles next week, and while I’m looking forward to it, it’s going to be weird.

For one reason, it’s been a while since I’ve been out to California, which is always kind of exciting.

Secondly, I get to make a speech that can be funny. A couple of stories from the book, and hanging out with some other authors will be interesting.

Who knows what author may be there as well. I’ve met some authors at other shows, including some of the big names.

One of my favorite nights was at the New England festival where I chatted with M.William Phelps who is a true crime writer. He filled me in on interviews he had with a serial killer who was on death row.

It was an amazing conversation.

At one awards show I was on a panel with a number of other writers and John Brubaker was also on the panel and he made a wise-ass comment immediately after I had made one and I thought:

“Ah, another class clown.”

We had lunch at the event and have been busting each other’s balls for about 15 years now.

I shook hands with the big guns, Stephen King and James Patterson and I won an award that John Irving had one the year before me.

So, who knows what to expect in that regard.

And then we have a few days to hang out in Hollywood, which will also be fun.

It’s good to get out of town once in a while.

But two long plane rides and time changes seems exhausting to me.

The Dodgers aren’t home, but the Angels are.

Maybe take in a game.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Heart Heavy

-
A couple of things happened over the weekend. First off, I couldn't take sitting around not being a part of the world. I decided to forego a portion of my rest my sore tendon. I got up off the couch and headed to work. I just couldn't take what I was seeing on the news and feeling in my heavy heart. Just too much. I headed for the convenience store and my daily chat with a real nice lady who collects my money for the papers. I pointed to the headline about the president's speech on Sunday night. She started crying. I thought of my wife crying as Obama read off the names of the children. I thought of the Bruce song: This is a prayer for the souls of the departed, those who've gone and left their parents broken-hearted. Their lives over before they got started. This is a prayer for the souls of the departed. My boy was still waiting in the driveway for his bus to come. I wanted to grab him and hug him, but he's 15. He might have kneed me in a bad spot...
Read more

A Grand Time

-
Image
“Are You An Idiot?” was sort of a pop song in a career filled with more ambitious books, but it did something that none of the others did. It won the whole damn thing. We walked into the festival in the famous Academy room at the Roosevelt Hotel in Hollywood (they film the Jimmy Kimmel Show next door) and Bruce Haring the event organizer greeted me with the news that I would speak last because “Are You An Idiot?” was the Grand Festival Award Winner. There were 9 festivals across the country that all had winners, including the Hollywood Beach Festival which “Are You An Idiot?” won. It was also chosen as the winner of all 9 festivals. Grand. I made a quick speech - it’s on my Author’s Facebook Page and then we called it a night. We have the Hollywood tour package in the morning and we are kicking around going to the Hollywood Bowl for ‘Jesus Christ Superstar’ or the Santa Monica Pier. An awards show is a long night, and we heard from about 40 winners. A couple of the authors cried as the...
Read more

There’s Still Greatness

-
Image
The other night I got home from work and Kathy and Sam were engaged in a game of backgammon. Sam had never played and wanted to learn. He got some late doubles and won his debut game. (I helped a little). And I thought of my buddy, Gag. We were roommates at Gannon back in 1983. We played at least 25 games of backgammon a night. By the end of the year he wound up beating me by just a couple of games out of a few thousand. That’s 60-year-old Gag in the photo - running the Disney marathon with his son, MJ - they do it every year. To raise money for Duchenne MD research. “He’s running again?” Kathy asked me as we talked about the donation.  “Of course.” “Italian men, man,” Kathy said. “You’re a stubborn, loyal lot.” “I ain’t running no marathons,” I said. “Gag is a maniac.” I enjoy following the posts as the run progresses - on Saturday morning I was fighting a cold or some such crap… …and they were running in the rain in Florida. There is a lot of negative energy in the news we see br...
Read more